Heritage Register
James Bay

51 Oswego Street (ex-130 Oswego St)

Built 1892
Heritage-Registered

For: Peter & Martha Shandley

Builder: attributed to Peter Shandley

ARCHITECTURE:

This 1½-storey, front-gabled Homestead Style house is one of an identical pair with 55 Oswego St, built by the Shandleys for $1,800 each. Details of the style are seen in the cornice returns and paired sandwich brackets above the corner-boards. A small, gabled, through-the-roof wall dormer sits over a double-hung window on each side of the house towards the rear. A decorative shingled flat-topped pent roof spans the width of the front façade with paired sandwich brackets in the frieze below. The roof sits above an angled bay on the left front and a porch with one corner post on the right. The front window casings, the area below the frieze, and the porch post have moulded decoration. Fish-scale shingles on the pent roof match those in the apex of the front gable. The house is clad in drop siding and has retained its original corbelled chimney. It has lost its roof cresting and finials, its original porch post and brackets.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

The Shandleys lived here from 1892-98. Peter was born in Wallasey, Cheshire, England, in 1867 and came to Victoria in 1889. Martha Hallwood arrived in 1890, and that year married Peter. Two of their three sons, twins Frank (130 Government St, James Bay) and Charles (645 Pine St & 929 Catherine St, both in Vic West) were born in this house in 1897.

Peter worked at Esquimalt dockyard, then started a paint contracting business. According to his obituary, he “carried out the decoration of many of Victoria’s finest homes and buildings.” From 1905 he worked in various departments of Canada Customs with son Frank’s wife’s uncle, John Newbury (140 Government St, James Bay), until retiring in 1933. He was a member of the Thermopylae Club. Peter and Martha were active members of the Church of Our Lord, and Peter helped build Bishop Cridge Memorial Hall in 1929. Martha died in 1937 at 71. From c.1940-45 Peter lived with Charles, then with Frank at 582 Marifield and 614 Dallas until his death in 1953 at 87.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

Thomas and Harriet (Horne) Nelson lived here from 1899 to 1902. Thomas was a confectioner for M.R. Smith & Co, then a janitor at the Legislature. He died in 1920 at 65. The Daily Times reported that his body was found floating in the waters near Holland Point, with an envelope addressed to himself “probably for identification purposes.” A member of OES, and active in Metropolitan United Church, Hattie died in 1934 at about 72.

Clarke and Florence (Wright) Tickle lived here in the 1920s. They came to Victoria from England in 1919. Florence died in 1945 at 53. Clarke was a clerk for Canadian Pacific Express for 43 years, and a member of the Veteran’s Guard. He died in 1968 at 80.

Herbert and Florence (Russell) Coleman were here c.1929-31. Herbert was born in Sussex, England in 1877. His family came to Canada in 1879, and resided in Cranbrook, BC, then moved to Victoria c.1933. Herbert was a gardener at St. Ann’s Academy (835 Humboldt St, Fairfield), and from 1936-46 a janitor with the BC Government. He died in 1951 at 73. Florence later left Victoria and lived in Duncan when she died in 1970 at 94.

By 1937, the residents were Hugh James and Elspeth Robertson (Bone) Burnett, who married in Vancouver in 1927. They lived here until 1945. Hugh was a seaman.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• James Bay History

• James Bay Heritage Register



• This Old House, Victoria's Heritage Neighbourhoods,
Volume Two: James Bay